Protecting against the COVID-19 virus might—might—be able to involve both pleasure and risk, in the method outlined in a new study: “Possibility of Disinfection of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) in Human Respiratory Tract by Controlled Ethanol Vapor Inhalation,” Tsumoru Shintake, arXiv 2003.12444. (Thanks to Vaughn Tan for bringing this to our attention.) The author, at Okinawa Institute […]
Tag: fire
Recovering Fire-Gazing as a Moving-Image Technology (study)
If you thought that animation technology began with the invention of the magic lantern in the 17th century or even, possibly, with flipbooks in the 15th – then think again. A 2017 paper from Anne Sullivan (University of California Riverside) suggests that it’s been around for many thousands of years – in the form of […]
Ear candling action overdue in New Zealand?
Some of those who suffer the inconveniences of excessive ear-wax turn to a radical remedy – a fire-based process called ‘ear-candling’ [see diag.] “Ear candles have been used for centuries and is [sic] considered a painless, inexpensive and non-invasive way to potentially remove ear wax that is easy to use in the privacy of your […]
A flash fire caused by a hospital hand sanitizer
It sometimes happens that a solution to a problem ends up creating a new problem. As an example, here’s a case in which the solution was a 70% alcohol-based gel in a wall-mounted dispenser in a hospital. The gel was intended to resolve so-called nosocomial problems associated with poor hand hygiene in hospitals. Unfortunately, a […]
Intentional Fire-Spreading by Raptors in Australia [research study]
Some birds intentionally spread fire from place to place, sometimes in cooperation with other birds, says this new study. “Intentional Fire-Spreading by ‘Firehawk’ Raptors in Northern Australia,” Mark Bonta, Robert Gosford, Dick Eussen, Nathan Ferguson, Erana Loveless, and Maxwell Witwer, Journal of Ethnobiology, vol. 37, no. 4, 2017, pp. 700-718. The authors write: “We document Indigenous […]
Non-crackling campfires not (quite so) relaxing?
Professor Christopher Dana Lynn, who is a ‘psychobiocultural’ investigator in the Department of Anthropology, at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, US, has performed what might be one of the only studies to have scientifically investigated the relaxing effects of sitting around a campfire. Although his findings confirm that “hearth and campfires induce relaxation as part […]
Further fiery adventures of adventurous 25 year old male students (chapter the next)
Yet another medical report concerning fiery exhuberance in young adults: “Acute Unintentional Intoxication with Paraffin in a 25-Year old Patient — Clinical case report,” Andon Chibishev and Natasa Simonovska, Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, epub May 10, 2014. (Thanks to investigator Ivan Oransky for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at University Clinic […]
Fire breathing – the dangers
“Fire breathing is a stunning but potentially injurious stunt. The fire-breathers direct a mouthful of fuel forcefully or creates a fine mist by spitting through pursed lips which is ignited over a flame resulting in a stunning visual show of plume, pillar, ball, volcano, or a cloud of fire [Figure 2].” The potential injuries are […]
The firemen who saved the top of a triceratops
A triceratops makes a rare appearance in the news, in this March 6, 2014 report by Sidney Bender in the Vineyard Gazette [in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts]: Triceratops Incineration? Not on Island Firemens’ Watch When Oak Bluffs firefighters responded to a fully involved fire on Barnes Road late Wednesday night, they knew that they had more […]
Flammable trousers: then, and later, and now
Behold three eras in the international saga of trouser flammability. THEN: The 2005 Ig Nobel Prize for agricultural history was awarded to James Watson of Massey University, New Zealand, for his study, concerning the period between World War I and World War II, called “The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley’s Exploding Trousers.” LATER: This month, in 2013, the […]